Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA), will be present at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, on 28-29 June 2019. She will also be attending in her role as Honorary Patron of the G20’s Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI).
At the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the UNSGSA will speak at a G20 side event on women’s economic empowerment. Globally, women are significantly less likely to have access to finance than men with a persistent gender gap of 9% in developing countries and 7% in developed countries, according to the Global Findex 2017. However, access to safe and reliable financial services, such as savings, credit, insurance or payments, has the potential to empower women, as well as make a significant and lasting development impact.
Queen Máxima will also discuss the importance of the W20, a G20 ‘engagement group’ made up of female leaders in many countries from the public and private sectors, as well as civil society. The group’s goal is to promote inclusive economic growth for women. The UNSGSA previously spoke with W20 representatives at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague on 5 June 2019 (click here to read more).
On the margins of the G20, Queen Máxima will also have bilateral talks with representatives of countries actively working to improve access to financial services.
Since 2009, Queen Máxima has been working worldwide in her capacity as the UNSGSA to make financial services available to all, including low-income groups and small- and medium-sized enterprises, to enhance their opportunities for economic and social development. As Honorary Patron of the GPFI, she strives to advance the G20’s work on inclusive finance.